Smoky Mountains Sunrise

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

From Our Mail: Rigged Pentagon Report


From: Traditional Values Coalition


Re: Rigged Pentagon Report


December 1, 2010


The Pentagon has released its report on gays serving openly in the military. It is designed to be used by Congress as justification for repealing the 1993 law that bans homosexuals from serving openly in the military. This report had a predetermined outcome to justify repealing the law from the start.

I am writing to ask that you to tell your U.S. Senators to vote against repealing the 1993 law that ban homosexuals from serving in the military. This matter should not be dealt with by a Congress of the Defeated during this Lame Duck session.

If the law is repealed, the military will institute a zero tolerance policy against anyone who is critical of homosexual sex acts. This will result in re-education programs, loss of promotions, and exodus from the military.

It will also result in the stifling of the religious liberty of chaplains who will be forbidden to preach from the Bible on the sin of homosexual sex acts.

Service in the military is a privilege, not a right. Homosexuals will damage unit cohesion and morale.

The process has been biased from the outset. Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick, U.S. Army Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of personnel, stated that any soldiers and officers who opposed homosexuality on moral and religious grounds were "bigoted and racists" and said "people opposing this new policy will need to get with the program, and if they can't, they need to get out."

The Pentagon report – with its predetermined outcome – will be used by liberals in Congress to push for the repeal of the 1993 law. This must not happen – especially during the lame duck session with the Congress of the Defeated. Tell your U.S. Senators today to vote against this repeal.

Republican leaders in the House, who will be overseeing military matters, have issued a statement calling for no repeal of the 1993 law until they have had a chance to review the study and hold hearings next year. They don’t believe the lame duck session is any time to make such a significant change to our military.

Urge your U.S. Senators to defer any action on repealing the 1993 law until after Congress has held a series of comprehensive hearings on this and has determined that this change will have no impact on our armed forces or national security during a time of war.

No policy change should be made that does not improve recruitment, retention, unit cohesion and military readiness.

Sincerely,

Andrea Lafferty
Executive Director
Traditional Values Coalition


GOP Rep. Buyer Blasts Acting Dem Speaker: "This is Why the People Have Thrown You Out"

Rush Limbaugh provided a wonderful example of why the American people, in their righteous indignation, have thrown the statist thugs out of the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives. Here's a glimpse of how the "People's House," under Democrat administration, has foisted Obamacare and scores of other unwanted, big-government, budget-busting legislation on the American people.




Disarmed & Dangerous: Stop the New START Treaty





What the Wikileaks Reveal

From Chronicles
By Thomas Fleming

The USA regime will soon recover from the embarrassments created by the massive release of diplomatic documents onto the Internet. There will be investigations and prosecutions. There will be ironic attempts by Madame Clinton and her colleagues to pretend that personal attacks on heads of state and foreign diplomats are de rigueur in the business of foreign affairs, but what few commentators have bothered to point out is the childish style of the papers. Mme. Clinton wants to probe the anxieties and possible drug use of the Argentine President; Putin and Medved are compared with Batman and Robin. The rhetoric and tone range from bitchy to puerile to paranoid. And these are the people that rule the world.

No, to anticipate the obvious question, it was not ever thus. We have thousands upon thousands of pages of state papers and private letters from leading politicians over the past two thousand years, and while Cicero may make jokes about Pompey or members of Lincoln’s cabinet sneer at the vulgarity and ignorance of their chief, the language of diplomats has been veiled and guarded even when caustic–especially when caustic. A famous diplomat of the 17th century said a diplomat was someone sent to lie abroad for his country. What Sir Henry Wotton did not say–because it was obvious–that the lying had to be managed with dignity and grace. Remember the odious Harold Macmillan’s response to Kruschev’s shoe-rapping outburst at the United Nations? He dryly asked for a translation. Reserve, tact, self-restraint–the virtues of a good card player–were required of diplomats and statesmen. Now we have churls and braggarts like Clinton, Rice, Albright, and that unspeakable pair, Richard Holbrooke and John Bolton, spoiled children who go around the world stirring up resentment against their government and its people.

American journalists are still whining about poor Richard Nixon. Nixon made many mistakes, not the least of which was to promote Henry Kissinger to a position that was so far beyond his competence as to defy the Peter Principle, but for the most part,, when he was not pretending to be a regular guy, Nixon knew how to conduct himself on the world’s stage. Our current crop of statesmen are perfect for Saturday Night Live.


Thomas Fleming is the editor of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture and president of The Rockford Institute. He is the author of several books, including The Morality of Everyday Life.


Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Sir Winston Churchill's "Finest Hour" Speech, on the Great Man's 136th Birthday


"What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.

Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'"



Winston Churchill's famous "Finest Hour" speech of June 1940 was a rallying cry to the people of Britain to prepare themselves for the dark days of World War II. In the above video, the military historian, Max Arthur, meets Allen Packwood, the Director of the Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, to learn some of the secrets of that memorable speech.


Americans Would Rather Cut Services Than Raise Taxes to Balance Budget, Poll Shows

To ease surging budget deficits, Americans prefer cutting federal services to raising taxes by nearly 2-1 in a new poll. Yet there is little consensus on specific, meaningful steps -- and a wariness about touching two gargantuan programs, Social Security and Medicare.

Read the rest of this entry >>


Monday, November 29, 2010

One Man Militia

My good friend, Father John Roddy, Pastor of St. Hilda of Whitby Anglican Catholic Church in Atlanta and author of the Anglican Catholic Priest blog, posted the following poignant reminder of the persecution and murder of Christians that is underway in Islamic countries. Please see his appeal for help.

ONE MAN MILITIA

Photo: Son of Fr. Mushtaq Andrew stands guard outside of tent where his Father is holding a service.

Not far from Lahore, Pakistan is an Anglican Catholic parish of the Diocese of Lahore/Pakistan, Church of India, Pakistan, Burma, and Ceylon. This is the same country where Asia Bibi lives. Christians are not safe in this country, the government has proven repeatedly that it cannot protect the Christian minority from attacks from violent Muslims, murderous attacks.

Fr. Mushtaq Andrew is the archdeacon of this tiny diocese and leads a small flock of Christians. This group of Christians also provide medical and social services to the poor. Now they feel so threatened that Father has posted his own son to guard the tent where the parish holds religious services lest they be attacked while at prayer. His son is in effect a one man Christian militia. This is a situation that elicits both admiration and horror at the same time. Admiration for one so young and all alone to bravely stand watch so that his earthly father might preach the gospel of the heavenly Father, and horror at the prospect that the daunting odds against this young Christian might get him killed.

The events of the past few weeks in Iraq, Egypt and Pakistan reveal a new tactic on the part of al-Qaeda that calls for direct attacks on native Christian populations in Islamic dominated lands. In Iraq and Egypt there is no Christian militia to defend the faithful from these attacks. The national governments seem incapable of defending Christian homes and churches from attacks, in fact often the government is aiding in covering up for the attackers and even on occasion arresting Christians who call the police for protection.

With a sister parish of my own church under threat, the horror of what is transpiring in these countries is made real to me in a way that others perhaps cannot comprehend. We need to pray earnestly for Christians in all of these countries and we need to support them financially so that they can create a more secure environment for their families. They need a building to worship in. In a tent they are most vulnerable. If you want to help them build a church please contact me and I will tell you how you can help.

In Christ,
Fr. John